Knowledge super corridors in Southeast Asia

Professor Chun Kwong Han, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU talked on "Knowledge super corridors in Southeast Asia". He recommended

the "Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice" (by Damon Golsorkhi, Linda Rouleau, David Seidl and Eero Vaara, 2010). Also I see he has published the paper "Economic Transformation in a Southeast Asian Country: Being Critical for Success", 2011. However, the presentation only briefly touched on knowledge super corridors and was a general theoretical analysis of the governance of government and non-government projects. He also mentioned Australia was a leader in e-commerce and noted the work of Pia Waugh at the Australian Department of Finance. As far as I could work out the "Knowledge super corridor" is similar to the Australia/Japan Multi Function Polis (MFP) of 1987, which did not live up to initial expectations.

Developing countries in Asia are in the process of transitioning from a production economy to a knowledge-based economy (k-economy). Various new knowledge and information communications technology (ICT) mega-projects are being designed and executed at the international, national, state and industry levels to sustain competitiveness. The structures and processes by which these so-called ‘knowledge super corridors’ are developed and implemented are complex economic-social-political decisions.

A sophisticated model is developed from critical and practice theories, whereby the new critical practice lens generates knowledge for understanding, evaluation and action. In this talk, Professor Han will illustrate the value of the model with two case studies on a k-economy blueprint and a knowledge portal in emerging k-economies in Southeast Asia.
He will also highlight the digital economy and ICT initiatives currently transforming Australia.